New Fleming Principal Gears Up

There is minimal activity going on at the brand-new William Fleming High School right now, with the first day of school still several weeks away. Maintenance workers chat down the hallway and  the far-off buzzer from a girl’s basketball camp can be heard echoing from the gym, but for the most part, the building is unoccupied. All the while, though, new principal Gene Jones is gearing up for the 2010-2011 school year. It has been over a year since Fleming has had a permanent principal.  (Susan Willis was fired after a testing scandal.)

Jones, formerly the executive director of Norfolk County Public Schools, has his roots in Norfolk. Raised in that harbor city, he went to Boston University, where he majored in political science with a focus on pre-law and public administration. His career path was changed  when one of his former teachers,  John O’Hara, talked to him shortly after graduation and urged him to get into education.

Jones heard of positions open in Norfolk, so he came back to the area, earned an M.S. in Education from Old Dominion University and became a history and social studies teacher at Lake Taylor High School. His entry into the administrative sector  came in 1994, when he became a dean of students at Lafayette-Winona in Norfolk. Several stints as a principal at various high schools  followed, including his six-year tenure  at Warwick High in Newport News,  during which the school was named by Newsweek as one of the top 100 schools in the nation (reaching 62nd in its highest ranking).

The school also had one of the top 50 guidance departments in the country during his tenure. In 2005, he was named executive director of high schools for Norfolk Public Schools. However, the tide turned when his position was merged with the middle schools director position during a round of downsizing.

Moving to Roanoke from the Tidewater region after being approved by the Roanoke School Board, Jones says he hopes to increase graduation rates by 10%, from last year’s estimated rate of 65%. In addition to maintaining William Fleming’s  accreditation,  Jones  wants to “put a strategic focus on higher-rigor courses” such as advanced-placement (AP) and dual enrollment courses, similar to the Continuous High School Improvement initiative that he set forth as executive director in Norfolk.

When asked how he is working with new Roanoke City High Schools Executive Director Thomas Haley, he says they both share many of the same views: “We believe in what the school board has set as initiatives.”

One effort that both hope to “initiate more fully this year” says Jones, is a credit recovery program for students that have fallen behind at Fleming. They hope to make use of online credit recovery  tools, such as the “Twilight” program that allows students to receive online course instruction after normal school hours in order to regain their academic footing. In addition to attending summer school at Fleming this year, about 45 students have been using online facilities at the school during weekdays for credit recovery.

“Technology is also essential to future success at Fleming,” says Jones, who points to the Virtual Virginia online program provided by the Virginia Department of Education, which allows students to take AP and core courses. At Fleming he points to video-streaming technology and “webinars” that can be accessed to train teachers, as well as benefit dual-enrollment classes  that can be boons to education at Fleming. He points out that “we have so much that can be produced within the building.”

In addition to various “great mentors” and a family that encouraged him to pursue his educational ambitions, Jones has another specific inspiration that has stayed with him for decades — the 1960s Green Bay Packers. A disciple at the altar of legendary Packers coach Vince Lombardi, his new office at Fleming is bedecked in autographs and photos of Packers victories, alongside clippings of his own achievements.  While Jones was principal at Warwick High School in Norfolk, he met former Packer quarterback Bart Starr, who was in town to see a memorial at the school to fellow Packer and Warwick graduate Henry Jordan. Full of questions, Jones asked him what his hero Vince Lombardi was like during his time on the Packers.

Starr responded with a quote from Lombardi that Jones now has in front of him at all times on his desk: “We’re going to relentlessly chase perfection knowing that we cannot catch it. But, in the process, we will achieve excellence.” Jones says that football maxim colors every aspect of his perspective on education. “We’re going to chase perfection … I don’t believe that 100% of the kids will graduate,” he says with a sudden raise of eyebrows and volume in his voice, “but we will achieve excellence.” Coach Lombardi couldn’t have said it better.